BUFFALO, N.Y. >> If you think Wisconsin will be in awe of playing the overall No. 1 seed in the second round of the NCAA Tournament you would be wrong.

This Wisconsin team has more NCAA game experience than reigning national champion Villanova. The seniors, namely guards Bronson Koenig and Zak Showalter, and forward Nigel Hayes, are 12-3 in tournament play and have been to two Final Fours and three Sweet 16s. They lost to Kentucky in the national semifinals as freshmen and fell to Duke in the national championship game a year later.

This is the ninth time the Badgers have faced a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. They are 3-5 in those games, but are 2-1 in the last three meetings against a No. 1. Wisconsin defeated Arizona in overtime, 64-63, in the Elite Eight in 2014, and knocked off Kentucky (71-64) in the national semifinals a year later before falling to Duke (68-63) in the championship game.

The Badgers look to put that experience to good use when they take on the Wildcats Saturday afternoon at the KeyBank Center for the right to play in the Sweet 16 in New York next weekend.

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And if there is one lesson Koenig, Showalter and Hayes have learned in the time in Madison is the importance of remaining level-headed.

“We’ve been a resilient team,” Koenig said. “We don’t get rattled when we’re down, kind of like Villanova, just play with a lot of poise. That comes from having a lot of confidence in ourselves and us as a team.

“You have to remain cool, calm and collected during moments of either low points in the game or high points, know that you may get up, but it may not be over yet. You still have game left to play and even if the other team goes on a run or you get down on that again, there’s more time left. You can come back and we’ve seed both sides of it.

“Going back to our first time in the tournament, really, when we played Oregon and Milwaukee, we were on a pace to lose by 20-plus, and you know, we kept our composure and we were able to fight back and win.”

The Badgers (26-9) did not have that problem in their tournament opener against Virginia Tech. Sure, the Hokies put up a fight, but the Badgers never lost the lead once they went in front, 6-4. Koenig finished with 17 points and Hayes had 14.

Hayes said that Wisconsin’s success has to do with the team’s preparation.

“Our coaches do an extremely good job of scouting, but we also do a good job of trying to stick to the fundamentals and do the little things. That’s what gives you championships.”

Still, the season has not been a smooth ride for the Badgers. Wisconsin lost five of six games before knocking off Minnesota, 66-49, on senior night in its regular-season finale.

“We wanted to get a big win going into tournament play and it turned our season around,” Showalter said.

The Badgers defeated Indiana (70-60) and then blitzed Northwestern (76-48) before falling to red-hot Michigan in the Big Ten championship game, 71-56. However that loss was not enough to deter the Badgers heading into the NCAA Tournament.

“We want to try to do something special in our last year,” Hayes said.

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NOTES >> The Badgers are trying to get to the Sweet 16 for the fourth straight year. The last schools to do that were Louisville and Michigan State in 2015 … This is the sixth time since 2007 that Wisconsin has won at least 26 games, the fifth-highest win total in program history … The Badgers have a 24-7 record in March over the last four seasons. That includes an 18-6 mark in post-season games.